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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29591532">Hardest Job in the World</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Radhfae/pseuds/Radhfae'>Radhfae</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, New Dream Week 2021 (Disney), Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 01:13:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,525</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29591532</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Radhfae/pseuds/Radhfae</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eugene and  Elaine (an eight-year old they've adopted) have an argument. Things go wrong, and Rapunzel and Eugene have time to think a bit about their parenting styles. Very light mentions of violence, some threatening. Not quite sure I'd characterize this as whump, but Eugene does get a little hurt. Plenty of angst, but also comfort, and soft family dynamics.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hardest Job in the World</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rapunzel was worried.</p><p>She couldn’t find Eugene anywhere. </p><p>He was off duty, right now, but she checked with Stan and Pete, anyways. He wasn’t in the royal library, and when Lance came by he confirmed he hadn’t been visiting the girls, either, or stopping by the Duckling. Even <em>Varian</em> didn’t have an idea where he was. And with each new person she encountered and asked, she began to see her own inner turmoil mirrored in their eyes.<br/><br/><em>Where could he be?</em></p><p>“I dunno.” Elaine muttered, unhelpfully, barely looking up from her book. They’d adopted the eight-year-old relatively recently. And parenthood was a whole new kind of adventure, but sometimes... </p><p>Something in her tone gave her pause. “Are you sure you don’t have <em>any</em> idea where he could be?”</p><p>Elaine stared at her book for a few moments, still refusing to meet Rapunzel’s gaze. “No- I mean, yeah. Yeah, I’m sure.”</p><p>“...Elaine...”</p><p>If anything, the tone just made her seem to observe the book even <em>more</em> resolutely. It <em>was </em>a familiar book, though - Rapunzel recognized it from Eugene and her father-in-law (she could say that because he was her <em>husband </em>now - somehow, she was convinced being able to say that would <em>never</em> get old). As Rapunzel watched her daughter, she seemed almost... guilty.</p><p>“Elaine,” Rapunzel said, more softly, approaching the window cushion the girl was sitting on. “Is there something you want to tell me?”</p><p>The question was met with silence, but Elaine finally turned her head- to look out the window. It was getting dark, outside, and Eugene still wasn’t - <br/><br/>“He’s <em>mad</em> at me!” The words burst out of the girl before she could contain them. “He got mad at me and then I got mad back and I said - but I swear I didn’t <em>mean </em>it, I just wasn’t thinking, and what if he never comes back just because I- I shouldn’t have-”<br/><br/>“Oh, honey, it’s okay.” Rapunzel said, quietly, holding her arms out. Elaine set the book down and practically ran into them, for a hug. Rapunzel wanted to know <em>what </em>could’ve possibly happened to make them fight to begin with - but Elaine definitely wasn’t in a state to explain it, and besides, <em>Eugene was still out there. </em>If she wanted answers, she’d just have to be patient. “We’ll find him in no time.”<br/><br/>“Are you sure?” Elaine said, looking up with a tear-stained face.<br/><br/>“Positive.” Rapunzel replied, holding her close.</p><hr/><p>When he’d walked into the woods to clear his head, because his thoughts were moving <em>far</em> too quickly for him to be able to stay in the castle, he’d expected to be back before anyone would properly notice he’d gone.</p><p>To be honest, he felt guilty for even having done it. He knew Elaine hadn’t <em>meant</em> that she hated him (even though it’d sure sounded like she did, when she yelled it in his face). He understood that being protective and wanting to keep someone safe wasn’t the same thing as what ... <em>Gothel</em> had done to Rapunzel.</p><p> <strike>He realized that he only worried because if he’d vanished from the world altogether at her age, he’d been very conscious of the fact that hardly anyone would’ve given a damn, and he never wanted her to feel that way. </strike></p><p>Unfortunately, he hadn’t counted on being ambushed. <em>Doubly </em>unfortunately, aforementioned thoughts had kept him from <em>noticing</em> he was on the brink of getting ambushed until it was too late. He might’ve held his own, despite being outnumbered, except that it was dark and the woods were dense, and eventually they’d gotten the jump on him. </p><p>“So, what’ll it be?” Eugene said conversationally, from his position chained to a tree, and a bag over his head. His ribs and stomach <em>hurt, </em>and he was pretty sure he must’ve gotten a concussion - but as far as he could tell, nothing was broken, or seemed to be bleeding, so he’d dealt with worse. It was almost frustrating that his lockpick was in his <em>front </em>pocket - so close, yet entirely inaccessible. Chains meant none of the fun tricks you could do with rope - so his only option was to get one of the sets of keys by luring them over here. “Secret passages into castle? Security codes for our top secret protocols? Because fun fact: you’ll get exactly <em>none</em> of that from me.”</p><p>“Oh, don’t worry, pretty boy. This isn’t about Corona. This is <em>personal.”  </em>It was impossible to make out features,  something about the tone made him want to shiver anyways. He tried to place the voice, but Flynn Rider had more than enough shadows in his past. <br/><br/>“Oh yeah?” Eugene said, sounding more unimpressed than anything else. “Well, get on with it, then.”<br/><br/>There was a snicker from  another one of them. “Should we tell him?”<br/><br/>“Nah, let’s watch him squirm.”<br/><br/>“Something tells me knowing will make him squirm even more, though.” A new voice spoke up, sounding smoother and more collected than the rest. A chill ran down him, though he took care to keep his expression composed. “You see, you’re an awfully difficult man to kill, Rider.”<br/><br/>“Thanks, I don’t try.” Eugene said, trying to quiet the alarm bells ringing in his head.<br/><br/>“No you don’t, do you?” The tone softened, but in a way that made him feel <em>naked</em>. “Somehow, you just manage to be lucky enough to make it out, but you’d give it all up in a heartbeat, wouldn’t you?”<br/><br/>Would he?<br/><br/>There was a time that answer would’ve been an immediate yes, but now he ... now he had a home, and a family. Now he’d seen what the absence of one friend could do to people, and dared to consider that perhaps his might elicit the same reaction. <br/><br/>“Aw, look, he can’t even answer. He really <em>has</em> gone soft, hasn’t he?” This was followed by another kick to the stomach, and some laughter at his utter inability to even brace himself for it. Eugene gritted his teeth against the pain. <br/><br/>“Don’t worry, though, pretty boy. We’ve got no plans to kill you.”<br/><br/>“Would you like a medal of honor?” Eugene managed to get out. “I’ll put in a request.”</p><p>One of the men kept going as if he hadn’t even said anything. “You’re a slippery man, Rider. But I think we’ve finally found a way to stick it where it hurts.”</p><p>Eugene went dead silent at this, trying to ignore the churning in his stomach, and how dry his mouth had gotten. After a long moment, he swallowed, and asked a question, one he <em>really</em> didn’t want to know the answer to. “What do you mean by that?”</p><p>“It means that your wife is probably going to come by to look for you, and when she is, we’ll be ready, and you’ll just have to <em>watch</em>.”<br/><br/>“With any luck, she’ll bring that brat with her, too. Two birds in one stone.”</p><p>”What, no ‘come quietly and no one gets hurt’?” He sincerely hoped his words didn’t sound as desperate as he was feeling. “I’m sure we can work something out-”<br/><br/>”You talk too much, Rider, but no. People will get hurt. In fact, we’re <em>counting</em> on it.”<br/><br/>He tried not to feel sick at how triumphant he sounded. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Rapunzel, it was just that she was just one person, in the end. He was almost certain she’d try to find him, and it wasn’t like her lack of seventy foot long indestructible hair meant she wasn’t great at fighting people, but it’d definitely been an asset.</p><p>More than anything else, he just hoped she didn’t come alone.</p><p>                                       </p><hr/><p>As it turned out, Rapunzel <em>wasn’t</em> alone.</p><p>She’d tried to convince Elaine she didn’t have to come along, but she’d kept insisting, and Rapunzel didn’t have the heart to leave her behind. Not when she recalled how vehemently Kiera and Catalina had insisted on accompanying them to Cassandra’s tower to rescue Varian. </p><p>Not when keeping her here when she so obviously wanted to join them felt too much like something Gothel would’ve done, just as much as lying to her would’ve been.</p><p>But it wasn’t <em>just</em> the two of them, either. Once they’d decided to venture outside the castle and its keep, some of the guards had insisted on joining them, too. This <em>was</em> their captain they were talking about. </p><p>It didn’t take too long to find the men and Eugene, because they hadn’t been trying to hide. Rapunzel felt her heart pound faster as she took in the scene, frantically trying to survey Eugene to see whether he seemed to be okay or not. She glanced to the side, and discovered that Elaine was no longer with them - but she wasn’t with the men, either, so she could only hope she’d retreated into the woods. </p><p>“Well, well, well. Look what we have here. How kind of you to grant us an audience, <em>Princess.”</em></p><p>Rapunzel’s eyes flashed. “It’s <em>Queen </em>now, actually.” She and the guards readied themselves in a fighting stance. Over by the tree, Eugene started to strain against the tree frantically. “Let. Him. <em>Go.”<br/><br/>“</em>Oh, I wouldn’t worry about him if I were you. He’s just here to get a front row seat.” One of the other men pulled the bag off of Eugene’s head, and he met her gaze with panic. “You’re the one who’s in a lot more trouble.”</p><p>Rapunzel barely had the chance to shoot a reassuring glance his way, before the gang launched into attack. <br/>                                     </p><hr/><p>Eugene hated feeling helpless. If there was anything at all relieving about this situation, it was just that Elaine wasn’t here - though he could’ve sworn he saw a blur of movement at the fringes on the other side of the clearing. It must’ve just been a trick of the light.</p><p>He could handle being in most kinds of hell alone - or even <em>with</em> Rapunzel, when they were side-by-side. And it wasn’t like he didn’t have faith in his men, either. But just having to <em>watch</em>, and not being able to do anything about it- that was just the worst feeling in the world. Rapunzel was more than capable, and so were the rest of them - he could see that the men who’d ambushed him had underestimated them and that filled him with a small sense of pride - but it didn’t stop his stomach from churning every time a blade whizzed through the air and Rapunzel just barely avoided a hit.</p><p>Suddenly, he felt the chains around him loosen, then drop slightly. He looked around, puzzled. </p><p>“Hey, Dad.” Elaine said, softly, peeking out from behind the tree. </p><p><em>Dad. </em>Eugene thought he was just now beginning to realize how his dad must’ve felt when he finally started calling him that. “...Elaine?” He swallowed, trying to ignore the sounds of the fight for just a moment and focus on her. <em>Why are you here?</em> He wanted to ask, but this wasn’t the time for that. “How did you-” He started, instead.<br/><br/>She gave him a very small smile. “I learned from the best.” <br/><br/>All he wanted to do was hold her tight and not let go for quite a while. But the fight wasn’t over yet - he surveyed the scene again, before looking back at her. “Thank you. I-I have a plan, now. But I want you to stay in the woods, okay?” He paused, remembering their... interaction, from earlier, then added. “You can even climb a tree if you want to, alright?” <em>Just stay safe.</em><br/><br/>Her eyes glimmered in recognition, but she nodded, darting back into the woods before he could even tell her he loved her.<br/><br/>“Alright, I’m putting an end to this.” One of the men lumbered over to him, clearly intending to use him as a hostage to put an end to the fighting.</p><p>However, he couldn’t have anticipated Eugene’s quick thinking. Instead of lunging to grab him, he found himself grasping at thin air, and before he knew it his feet were in the same chains Eugene’s hands had once occupied.</p><p>                                     </p><hr/><p>After that, it hadn’t taken much time to overpower the rest, and get them all back, safely.  Rapunzel had <em>insisted</em> Eugene stop by the medical wrong, and Eugene had protested saying he’d been in <em>much</em> worse scrapes before, but relented eventually. She was sitting in Elaine’s bedroom again, now, quietly reassuring her about the day’s events. The eight year was sitting on the window cushion again, but this time she was just flipping through the pages of the book, rather than reading any of it.</p><p>Suddenly, though, they heard familiar footsteps coming down the hall. Eugene and Rapunzel had already shared a kiss and quiet conversation, so she held back as Elaine set the book aside carefully, before practically <em>launching </em>herself at him. “Dad!”</p><p>“Oof.” He said, wincing at the impact, though he caught her, and was looking at her warmly.</p><p>“Oh! I’m sorry!” She blinked, suddenly worried. “Are you okay? Sorry, I didn’t think-”<br/><br/>“I am now, thanks to you.” He said. “Though when <em>did</em> you get so good at stealing keys? Do I need to have a talk with Uncle La-”</p><p>“IIIII’m sure there’s much more important things to talk about right now,” She said, hurriedly. “Right Mom?”</p><p>Rapunzel chuckled, giving her a knowing look. “Right.”</p><p>Elaine still hadn’t let go of him, relaxing into the hug, but then she said, more quietly. “I’m sorry about what I said this morning.” She looked up at him, more tentatively. “Are you still mad at me?”</p><p>“Oh, Elaine, I didn’t say it like that because I was <em>angry.” </em>He swallowed down his guilt, trying to explain. “I said it because I was <em>scared</em>.  Climbing things like trees and ladders is always okay when you’re with your friends. But, uh, maybe using the beams that keep the roof together to practice balancing when you’re alone isn’t...” He tried to keep the anxiety from bleeding into his voice, as he thought about all the times he’d had to watch his friends and Rapunzel be suspended and fall from great heights, as he thought about inching down that narrow ledge to save his father-in-law, and take the ring to Varian. He glanced over at Rapunzel, and she gave him a knowing look, which instantly made him feel safer. “I’m sorry I made you feel bad. Do you think you can forgive me?”</p><p>Elaine processed this for a moment, then nodded. “It just looked really cool when you were up there.” She admitted, finally, in a small voice.</p><p>“Tell you what.” He said, making a decision. “In a few days, when I feel a little better, we can <em>all</em> go up there together. How does that sound?”</p><p>“I think that’s a great idea, Eugene.” Rapunzel said, warmly, and Elaine nodded, excitedly. “For <em>now</em>, though,” she walked over to the both of them, joining the hug. “I think it’s time for someone’s bedtime.”</p><p>“Can you at <em>least</em> tell me a story first?” </p><p>Eugene’s eyes fell on the book sitting on the windowsill. “Fine. We can read you one cha-”</p><p>“No, I want to hear a story about Flynn Rider.” She watched him, her eyes shining. “I think he’s <em>much</em> cooler.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Late submission for the Fitzbabies prompt in New Dream Appreciation Week - hope it flowed well enough because I wrote most of this while heavily sleep-deprived lol. As always, comments and reactions are appreciated!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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